These WTA stars could be in for make or break 2025 with more questions than answers

2024 saw a lot of feel-good tennis stories including the rise of Jasmine Paolini as well as younger talents continuing to come to the fore in Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider among others. But also served as a stark reminder to some that improvement is needed and a big 2025 will be make or break.

Certain players only made their comebacks in 2024 and are already under pressure to redeliver on their initial promise or success. Others have go from hero to zero with injuries blighting them and not being able to redeliver on past form.

Whilst in a different vein, Aryna Sabalenka started to fully achieve her potential and after winning the Australian Open and following that up with a heartbreak at the US Open, she retained her title and sealed the Flushing Meadows crown. A player that oozes class and looks like a World No.1 both in photoshoots and on the court, Sabalenka will look to anchor women’s tennis into the next year. But don’t count out Iga Swiatek for instance who will hope that a new partnership with Wim Fissette pays dividends and gives her the success on other surfaces that she craves.

The first had a near unstoppable start to 2024 but her latter half was a metaphor for her career thus far. She has often starred and failed to back it up through illness and injury so not facets that she can often control. When she plays, she is often at the top of her game but it is very much few and far between.

But she is looking up. After a meek start to her WTA Finals campaign which saw it over before it started really, she showed against Aryna Sabalenka in particular that the form is still very much there and just needs to be unlocked again. She also has rid herself of Stefano Vukov who as a coach was dubbed abusive in certain quarters. Rybakina as a player herself hasn’t wanted to comment on it too much but other insiders have painted a bleak picture of their relationship and she now has a taskmaster who will get her back to the top.

That being Goran Ivanisevic. 6 years with the great Novak Djokovic and of course his own successful career atop the sport. A player with undoubted potential to lead the sport in the future. They will work together in the off season and Rybakina will head into Australia which is a favoured set of events likely with fresh knowledge and impetus.

A player who has perennially been a near hitter but had a reign in the top 10 which was unlike most in the women’s game. She joined forces with David Witt during Indian Wells immediately reaching the final and also had success in Miami. But dispensed with his services after losing early at Roland Garros. He could solve a lot but couldn’t solve the issue that her form in Grand Slams in particular has not been good enough.

She bowed out of the US Open merely playing due to the fact that she needed to defend ranking money having played with a shoulder injury that she also had at the Olympics. From there she didn’t play for the rest of the season.

She has been seen in recent days putting the hours in during what she dubs as pre-pre season before she ramps up preparation for the big run in towards the Australian Open. But a player who continues to ask more questions than provide answers. But one that in 2022 in particular was among the top players in the sport and could easily get back there.

Perhaps a player who ends her season with a better stock than when she initially curtailed it back in the early Autumn with injury. Emma Raducanu is perhaps an unfair example as a player who consistently having the press baying at her and waiting for her to fail.

She has dealt with a myriad of injury problems in recent years and has attempted realistically to be tentative in her approach on return. But that has also not worked out fully for her. She has not come back at points that perhaps she should’ve done and that has derailed momentum and called into question her planning.

For instance back in May she was flying high with the Great Britain team performing exquisitely on clay as she anchored them to the Finals. A role she also played in Malaga as the winner in their defeat by Slovakia. But then she decided bizarrely not to play clay further from that.

Other such issues have seen her not play qualifying despite her career being based off the initial success she had in the format at the US Open. But this is likely more down to her team and with her being a global sporting success story, it derails the hype train but then that comes shuddering to a halt if the results in the tournaments she does play don’t back it up.

For instance the Asian hard court swing was targeted. Being of Chinese heritage, Raducanu targeted returning to a country that is ingrained in her identity. But she got injured early on and so the grand plans she perhaps had weren’t to be. But being only 22, it is very much a learning curve. Her ranking continues to go up as she hasn’t defended a lot in the past year and she will likely change tact knowing her previous decision making wasn’t wise.

Another returnee in 2024 was one Naomi Osaka albeit she is perhaps one that didn’t fail albeit maybe in her own mind. She had some great early results reaching two Quarter-Finals and also the fourth round at the China Open. As well as that incredible Iga Swiatek match at Roland Garros.

But Beijing saw disaster strike as she got injured while ahead against a certain Coco Gauff and was also the first green shoots from her new partnership with Patrick Mouratoglou and an immediate bounce in form.

She didn’t play for the rest of the season and also left Japan without their main star for the Billie Jean King Cup Finals. But Osaka wanted to be back towards her best by the latter half of the season and didn’t reach that so there is definitely work to do in 2025.

Did she set too high expectations for herself? It is hard to tell as she has returned from being a mother, a life changing event in itself and juggling all of that can either be the catalyst take Victoria Azarenka’s sudden return to form or it could be the downturn as Angelique Kerber found as she retired from the sport months after her comeback.

Belinda Bencic and Petra Kvitova will likely be the next cabs off the rank to return. The former already has albeit at a lowly level to test out the limits of post motherhood tennis. But Osaka is certainly one who can improve in 2025.

Speaking of returnees after pregnancy, Caroline Wozniacki is an interesting one. The Dane has received criticism for following the similar to Emma Raducanu route of not playing unless she has a wildcard.

The former World No.1 perhaps will think in 2025, was this all worth it? She remains in the top 100 but also had to defend herself after comments made by her father Piotr about a lack of respect felt for not getting a wildcard to the French Open. She reached the third round of Wimbledon as well as the Quarter-Finals of Indian Wells.

But her decisions still puzzle. She decided not to play the Asian hard court swing again in 2024 despite likely gleaming some important ranking points that would circumnavigate poor draws to start 2025.

She also skipped the Middle East this year and likely will again next year. So the sample size is very much small as to the events she is playing vs the results. She pops up occasionally with a great win reaching the Last 16 at the US Open last time out but doesn’t navigate the tour with any semblance of week in week out consistent play.

So what her plans are going forward? Who knows. But with others such as Osaka and even Karolina Muchova who came back from injury to play every week and rise up the rankings, it offers the glimpse of what Wozniacki should realistically be doing to get back to the level. Or it could be a two year stint and retirement could loom. Those questions likely get answered in 2025.